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Do not let anything good in life pass you by. Cherish it with all of your heart, because before you know it even life will have passed you by. And if you let all those things pass you by? The only thing filling your heart will be deep sadness and regret. So whatever you do, hold on, and never let go.

I should have know you would be in a corner somewhere creating some awesomesauce! and brilliant find on the lacquer and dye as an alternative for anodizing, really gives a nice finish by the looks of it!

Pretty much but with surface prep like you would for painting or any other type of finishing, so instead of a subtle layer & a subtle portion of the surface getting dyed, just the layer gets dyed, to scratch it I had to jab keys into the surface so it's a nice & strong finish too especially for such a thin layer, it flexes well too like anodising.

Good surface prep & application of the metal lacquer is so important though else you end up with that fish eye effect like I did on first tests.

Awesome difference of anodising to lacqodising is it could be applied to any type of metal so that means you could get some mirror polished stainless steel & dye it any colour, this is why I think it's a pretty big find.

At this stage I just know it works which I'm really happy about, once I have it perfected I'll do a separate step by step guide on how to do it perfect although it's that simple I don't really think there is a need for a guide.

Thoughts on perfect application of the metal lacquer, spray it on or even dunk parts but spraying & dunking will require much more lacquer but for all smaller parts like everything on this HTPC dunking is a very real option, could use Tupperware boxes for the dunking & I'll buy a big enough but cheap stew pan for the dying.

Bigger panels are going to be tricky purely because they will likely need large custom boiling pans that can still be used on a stove.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Crapman

bloody hell thats's and outstanding result

Thanks mate, I was a bit gobsmacked when I found it actually works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

Niiiiiiiiiiiiice

Did the edges not really want take the dye or is it the pics?

Thanks mate, the corners of edges, I'll put that down to it just being a rough piece of scrap, the blue tint under very bright light that could either be from too thin of a layer or not leaving it in the dye long enough, I'll get it perfected now I know it works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squigly

I had completely missed this build

I should have know you would be in a corner somewhere creating some awesomesauce! and brilliant find on the lacquer and dye as an alternative for anodizing, really gives a nice finish by the looks of it!

Thanks Squigly, needed a little change, never had a project span past a current year so really needed a quick change before getting back onto the other, this should have been no longer than a week to do but lol I let that slip a bit but this latest distraction is of the awesome kind.

My screws came today also so can get this project rolling again.

Been buying new hard drives as I can & now have all the needed ones for lean & green, the HTPC on that will now have 14TB of storage, 3 4TB drives & 1 2TB drive along with an SSD, the hard drives are all from Hitachi touro external USB 3 drives so they are nice & quiet cool spin drives running at 5400RPM, pretty much silent runners & doing it this way I save £80 on each one along with obtaining a load of spare components.

Have you tried to do it in the oven? that way it would be really easy to try different temperatures and also make quite large sheets! (thought it may react in another way because of all the hot air around, or maybe be helpt by it because the temperature will be even and you can preheat the parts before bathing it )

ps. Your marble switches are FANTASTIC! i will steal that someday!

__________________Works as a tool retailer, glad if i can help someone with tool questions!

Have you tried to do it in the oven? that way it would be really easy to try different temperatures and also make quite large sheets! (thought it may react in another way because of all the hot air around, or maybe be helpt by it because the temperature will be even and you can preheat the parts before bathing it )

ps. Your marble switches are FANTASTIC! i will steal that someday!

Thanks kelmannen, I'm really chuft with the discovery just keeping it on a stove & the water simmering, not bubbling does the trick but I'll possibly have to get a custom boiling pan welded so I can do big panels, I'll get by fine with normal cookware for this one though.

I'd love to see more nice switches, plain vandal switches I used to be happy with until I noticed some saying how they are tired of them, I like the nice function of them but I agree, the look is too normal now, huge variety in marbles so I think they are perfect for switches.
Cheapskate beat me to that discovery by 5 years by the way, I only just found out recently, thought it was something new.

Re made all the motherboard trays, seems I didn't account for the extra 1mm allowance for the motherboard IO shield so had to squeeze motherboards into place, they are good now, done it for Midlag Crisis & both systems in Lean & Green.

Now this system will work right, everything else is perfect fit.

Got my screws so this thing will come together over the next days, I'll try another test or 2 for the lacqodising, going to try dunking panels into the lacquer but on scrap to see how good or bad that is compared to brushing it on.

As I said someone pointed out drip pans, I gave it a little more thought, they seem a good idea but even in that small source pan I lost about 15mm of water to condensation so a 1 inch deep large pan would quickly lose depth & no way would I use that in the kitchen unless I wanted to be murdered when I cover the kitchen in dye lol.

Seen a huge aluminium casserole pan though, it's a bit expensive I suppose @ £70 with shipping but it would fit anything from lean & green in there plus it has a nice lid to prevent condensation needing me to top up regular.

I won't dedicate to buying that though until I can be sure I have the process perfected.

Did these for 20 minutes & tipped the rest of the black clothes dye in the pan which I'd say will be round about 3 teaspoons of dye powder.

Background a real black anodised panel, upper piece is double dipped in metal lacquer, lower piece is single dipped, looks far from good & the strength is very weak, could scratch it off easily = BOTH EPIC FAIL.

Back to Ox hair brush, upper piece is half double coat & half single coat, lower piece is first test, double coat with stronger dye I don't like, single brush with stronger dye = WINNING.
And yes the adhesion is mighty fine like the first test.

Winning one with real black anodised background.

Group.

I think I'd use double the amount of dye for a project just for that little bit of overkill & unless I want naked corner edges for a stand out outline contrast on everything I'll have to round edges off, extra attention to surface prep work will be needed so that will be smoothing, brushing & then thoroughly cleaning before brushing lacquer on 1 side at a time doing the bottom side first & top side last so it stays best side.

This is pretty much conclusive as far as I'm concerned but even so I'll do more tests when I get a timer to dye a pile of small bits taking 1 out every 30 seconds to make a shade chart for how long is needed for what shade, for all I know they might be up to full shade in 5 minutes, just don't know yet.

Isn't it so often the case that the first test you do is often the best one, just as well you remember what you did the first time
The R & D will be worth it though to get a reliable shade chart, I wonder if the results for black will translate to other colours?

Isn't it so often the case that the first test you do is often the best one, just as well you remember what you did the first time
The R & D will be worth it though to get a reliable shade chart, I wonder if the results for black will translate to other colours?

Yeah, I'll try the same test on 1 or 2 other colours but will always do complete tests for different brands of dye just to be safe, sure looking forward to properly applying this idea though & it should be real soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elenos

Hehe black on black photos ftw. Really like how it came out though :-)

Thanks Elenos.

Screw up ramble re-cap for this project lol.

Skip down to hibber jibber if screw up ramble is a bore.

I guess I like to include everything so if I ever need to recall bits of the project I can just look through my log & it doesn't portray someone who does everything perfect.

They are all related to slight errors while making the design printer ready, used to be a case of measure a few times before cutting or drilling once, now it's be ultra careful manually converting to 2d to make my designs printer ready, these lessons will or should prevent me from making future screw ups, at least I know by now to include every single important mount hole in the design before getting into doing one for a far quicker project with less confusion.

So, I got to the point where everything structural was almost done, someone prompted for testing hardware fitting to see what I got right or wrong & was about to stick the power & data plug in place to the internal HDD dock slide piece, glad I did a check up throughout.

First there was the curves in 1 of the 3mm panels that I didn't fully complete in the design so didn't look right, re made it.

Stuck the bar templates on the wrong sides (was working 4 sides) but luckily I was able to salvage them without them standing out with them being hidden.

Then realised I cut 2 of the same 1mm alu panels for the PCI/IO piece when 1 of then has a 1mm lip for the IO shield to pop in place better, had to make another.

Then discovered my mobo trays were all slightly wrong needing 1mm extra space for the IO shield that comes with mobos, re made this one & both ones for my other project.

Then minor things like some mount holes needing to be slightly bigger, then I found I had the SSD mounted the wrong way around in my design but in the right place so had to re make the SSD plate, also had the internal IR receiver mounted facing inwards some how so re made the front panel too.

LMAO

Hibber jibber

Here is a few pictures of what I've done lately & yeah my priority for modding has lowered a bit so I'm now more of a casual modder who happens to do a huge session when I really feel like it, I'll enjoy it more this way with not putting pressure on myself.

The reason I had to re make the front panel, the IR mounts were facing the wrong way, d'oh.

Plugged another brass insert into the PCI/IO piece for the last of the panel mounts, showing sinking the insert in with solder iron which leaves a risen spot which is then either filed or sanded flat.

Cut the fan legs off & stuck the fan in place with JB weld, I'd describe JB weld like it sets like hard durable plastic, seems like pretty good stuff, like Araldite rapid steel but more concentrated & stronger.

Made room for the e-sata cable to go underneath the mobo & direct to the rear e-sata port (I'll make a little plug to fill the void).

Few random shots before I perfected things.

Bad fit, sorted it out since then though.

Which brings me to now & I have just stuck the power & data cables to the HDD dock since I just finished the front panel re make & tweaked the whole structure so everything fits awesome, just seriously hopes the JB weld doesn't squelch into the HDD connector, I won't test that for a day so I just got to hope it is OK, I did lay some masking tape beneath in case it stuck to the bottom panel but if it squelches into the drive connection I am so screwed lol.

Mounted the IR receiver in the fresh new front panel with 2 4mm spacers I had to grind down from 10mm so neded tiny 2mm screws for that.

From the front & I made the marble more flush to the surface, looks nicer to me but I'll need to re solder 1 of the wires back on the switch (came loose).

SSD mount/PSU stand tweaked to how I wanted it.

Also tweaked everything so it all fits perfect but silly me I didn't take no shots before getting onto the HDD dock piece which required me stripping it down a bit but I really like how it's turned out.

Even drilled LED holes into the PCI/IO piece to see how well it lights up = really really poorly so now I know what to do whenever making layered up PCI/IO pieces that I'd like to light up, stick to plain clear acrylic & paint them or better still, apply vinyl & use LED strips.

Just wish I had the finished article now but it is just around the corner now.

Very little to show but I got "something" e-sata hdd dock, works nicely, just need to wire an on/off switch to it & make it look a little nicer now the functionality is spot on & was I ever glad the JB weld didn't squelch into the connection making it a permanent fixture to the spare hdd lol.

Then I've just got external edge finishing & surface finishing to do now, already done the internal edges, thanks to the simple pattern cut outs they were nice & easy to do, LAG won't be that easy but not too far from it.

Lacqodising, got everything I'll need for that now, last things I needed was the big pan, timer, scales & primary dye colours but I also got secondary & more black, been stocking up on big milk jugs too so I can re use the dyed waters I make, I'll be able to make any colours, depth & shade from these.

Fits the biggest panel of LAG in there which is a relief.

Won't be using the giants pan for this project though, a smaller more human pan can be used.

Just need to dedicate more since I've given myself chance to properly relax & get a grip but I won't ever be over dedicating again, I tend to end up flipping out way too easily when I do that lol, I think the key to it all is be passionate about modding but separate the passion from the ego completely & things turn out pretty awesome more naturally then & if it doesn't wow people then so what, maybe next project will lol.

I was wondering why the updates slowed down, and you're right Wayne, do your own thing. Me personally I like it a lot, it's what makes your builds different, much better than a lot of the generic stuff in the build logs

I was wondering why the updates slowed down, and you're right Wayne, do your own thing. Me personally I like it a lot, it's what makes your builds different, much better than a lot of the generic stuff in the build logs

Thanks Asouter needed a little break to get back to my regular mellow self.

Just thought I'd add this progress shot to show things are moving along to go with the reply, all these have been sanded on the internal, external edges & surfaces, pretty close to having it all ready to lacquer it all up.